France's Pompidou Centre is opening a "Teen Gallery" next year, with NFC tags on every exhibit and the inevitable Facebook connection to draw in Paris youth.
The idea is to put tags beside every exhibit, so punters can wave their phone nearby to get more information on the artist and work. But even the French won't have NFC …

COMMENTS

And there was me thinking...

This seems to be a recurring theme with RFID in general.

Passports, public transport passes, access passes, even key-system keys, car keys, what-have-you. As they're wireless such systems can be much easier abused or even be used unintentionally and by accident, incurring charges, identity theft damage, and all sorts of nasty side effects that you the user essentially no control over. This serves as a good vehicle to make people more afraid of technology, leaving them feeling less empowered to take advantage of these supposedly wonderful techno-advances. So why do it?

What is the compelling business case to go with more complex technology over simpler, cheaper, more user-friendly alternatives that it gets pushed through regardless every time?

it ain't broke, but they still have to fix it

"What is the compelling business case to go with more complex technology over simpler, cheaper, more user-friendly alternatives that it gets pushed through regardless every time?"

Sponsorship. The museums/galleries don't have enough cash, so they look for a sponsor who offers them money if they agree to set things up so that punters have to buy the technology to get the best "user experience". Since the s**theads who run our governments are convinced that the best way to win votes is to offer solutions to non-existent problems like the "digital divide" (instead of just running the country properly and staying out of our way) there are also handouts and grants to encourage this sort of behaviour. Paid for by our taxes.